Australian student freed from North Korea accused of ‘spying acts’ and ‘anti-state’ propaganda

Australian student Alek Sigley gestures as he arrives at the airport in Tokyo on Thursday, July 4, 2019. The Australian student who vanished in North Korea more than a week ago arrived in Tokyo Thursday, July 4, 2019. (Eugene Hoshiko/AP)

North Korea alleges its capital, Pyongyang, was subject to “spying acts” and propaganda by an Australian student the country freed this week.

Alek Sigley, 29, was accused Saturday of “combing” through Pyongyang and giving information to “anti-DPRK” media, the capital’s official Korean Central News Agency reported, according to AP. North Korea is formally called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, abbreviated as DPRK.

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The news agency stated that Sigley “honestly admitted his spying acts of systematically collecting and offering data about the domestic situation of the DPRK and repeatedly asked for pardon, apologizing for encroachment upon the sovereignty of the DPRK."

The outlet said Sigley was expelled because of North Korea’s “humanitarian leniency.”

According to a statement from NK News CEO Chad O’Carroll: "Alek Sigley’s well-read columns presented an apolitical and insightful view of life in Pyongyang which we published in a bid to show vignettes of ordinary daily life in the capital to our readers.

The six articles Alek published represent the full extent of his work with us and the idea that those columns, published transparently under his name between January and April 2019, are ‘anti-state’ in nature is a misrepresentation which we reject."

Sigley’s NK News articles concerned North Korean apps, fashion, restaurants, and his experience in the country as an Australian transplant.

Sigley, a Masters student at a Pyongyang university who conducted tours in the capital, was reported missing late last month, BBC News reports. He was released Thursday.